


Summoning the Dragon

by Moonsault, orphan_account



Series: The Darkling Plain [6]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Career Ending Injuries, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hope, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:36:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10062023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsault/pseuds/Moonsault, https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Before the brand split, Finn Balor and Corey Graves try to convince a wounded American Dragon to come out of retirement.Dean Ambrose comes along because dragons are cool.





	

There’s a woman waiting for them, guarding the gate as though she knew they were coming. “He doesn’t want to see you,” she says, a frown on her beautiful face.

“Geez, how long’s he gonna mope?” says Dean Ambrose, fidgeting restlessly and peering past the gate.

“We’re sorry,” says Finn Balor, sounding sincere as only Finn can. “But we really need to talk to him. And I think maybe he needs to talk to us.”

The woman looks at Corey Graves, standing behind the other two wrestlers, as if she’s waiting for him to add his voice. Corey shrugs uncomfortably and says nothing. She stares at him, expressionless, and Corey feels for a moment as though she’s peering into his soul. He winces and looks away.

Then she pushes the gate open and stands aside. “He’s at the end of the path to the right,” she says. She grabs Finn’s arm as he walks by, and Finn stops dead in his tracks. “If you bring him more pain, I will never forgive you,” she says.

Finn inclines his head. “We wish him no harm, I swear,” he says.

She lets go of his arm, and Corey can see the marks of her fingers on his skin. Finn doesn’t react, he just smiles reassuringly. They turn onto the path and start to climb.

“This is so cool,” says Dean. “I’ve never met a dragon when they were actually, y’know, _dragonning._ ”

“They don’t have dragons in Faerie?” Finn says idly, while Corey deeply regrets bringing Ambrose along. _He’s not even a member of the Spirit Squad… just because he was willing to drive and wanted to see a dragon is no reason to bring him along._

“Nope,” Dean says cheerfully. “No dragons, no gray aliens, no yeti. It’s surprisingly boring there. Why do you think I ditched it to be a wrestler?”

The path is growing more steep and rocky. It’s late spring, but the trees are still barren, the grasses still withered. It’s as if the whole land is in mourning.

“Why do so many dragons end up in wrestling?” Dean wonders aloud as they scramble upward. “We got El Dragon Azteca and Drago in Lucha Underground, we got Ultimo Dragon, we got Steamboat, we got Super Dragon--I think that’s most of the dragons left in the world, ain’t it?”

“No idea,” says Corey curtly. He doesn’t have time for this nonsense. “I guess dragons like wrestling.”

“A vegan dragon,” Dean says. “Ain’t that the oddest thing?”

Finn breaks off a dried twig as they pass a tree and looks at it: no bud, no leaf. “Rumor has it he’s vegan because meat just reminds him of how delicious humans are, and he’s trying not to relapse.”

“Oh,” says Dean. He falls silent after that, for which Corey is profoundly grateful. He supposes it could have been worse: they could have brought Enzo along as well. Or Sami Zayn. Corey is not really in the mood for cheery soliloquies about silver linings and keeping your head up and persevering despite the odds.

They’re here to try and convince a depressed and despairing American Dragon to come back to wrestling, and Corey has no idea what any of them can say to do it.

Eventually the path comes to an end in front of a cliff face. There’s a cave mouth there where the sun’s light hardly seems to penetrate. It’s black and bleak and fiercely uninterested in them.

Dean strolls up to it and calls into the dark as if he’s delivering a pizza.

“Hey! Daniel!” he yells. “I know you’re feeling shitty right now, but hey, there’s big world out here full of cool shit that you haven’t seen yet! I think a Bigfoot just had a tryout for NXT, wouldn’t that be awesome to see? And you wouldn’t believe the cruiserweights they’re auditioning! I mean--” His voice falters for a second before he forges on, “I know you can’t _wrestle,_ but there’s still lots of great stuff, you know. There’s fast cars and your pretty wife that you love, there’s sunrises and conspiracy theories and the most hilarious shit on the dirt sheets. It’s all good, you know?” 

A hot wind curls out of the cave like a gusty sigh, blowing Dean’s hair around. There are sparks in it like the draft from a great fire; Dean winces and slaps at his arm.

“Whatever, I gave it a shot,” he mutters. “Your turn, Finn.”

Finn steps forward and clears his throat, then calls out politely: “Daniel, forgive us for bothering you at this difficult time. But--you may have heard--they’re splitting up Smackdown and Raw soon, and they’re looking for a Smackdown General Manager. And we were hoping you’d… take the job.”

Deep within the darkness, a very large golden eye flares into existence. It gazes out at Finn Balor, and then a deep and luminous voice with only the faint vestiges of Daniel Bryan’s Northwest nasal accent says: “No.”

The cave goes dark again.

“Sir,” says Finn. “I understand. But please--there’s the next generation to consider. There’s so many new wrestlers who could benefit from your wisdom and your passion. I know you want to pass it on. The WWE--the _world_ \--would be a poorer place without you in it, Daniel.”

This time the silence is more reflective. But the word that drifts out from the darkness is still _No,_ flat and full of pain.

Finn looks distressed, and that’s the worst part of Corey’s day so far.

“All right,” he says, “You two--go away. Just--” He makes vague shooing motions at Dean and Finn. “Let me talk to him.”

Dean looks doubtful. “What are you gonna do, insult his fashion sense until he comes out to fight you?”

“No,” Corey sniffs. “Although honestly, between that beard and the flannel, he could use some--” He breaks off as Finn touches his arm very lightly. “Just… give me a few minutes alone with him,” he says. Then he forces himself to add: “Please.”

Dean raises an eyebrow, but Finn takes him by the elbow and steers them off, back down the trail. Corey waits until he can no longer hear their footsteps. Then he sits down next to the cave mouth, his back against the warm rock. He closes his eyes for a moment.

“Dragon,” he says. “They both tried to tell you they understand.” He doesn’t bother to raise his voice. He knows the dragon can hear him. “You and I both know that’s not true. And I suppose I could feed you some line about how I understand you, but I don’t know if I do. Because everyone has a different relationship with wrestling. Everyone feels it differently. I know I miss it like an amputated limb, and I will every single day for the rest of my life.” He swallows hard. “You and I both know their reasons for coming back are bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about the exciting things in the world. I’ll be honest, I don’t give a fuck about the next generation. I care about the ring and the crowd and the feel of the ropes against my back, the joy of the dance and the satisfaction of the kill. And that’s gone.” He pauses, tilts his face up to the pitiless bright sky. “That’s gone forever.”

The silence from the cave is...not accepting. But it’s closer to listening than Corey has felt so far today.

“But you know,” Corey says, “none of us really fell in love with wrestling by _doing_ it, did we? I mean, none of us woke up one morning wanting to be a wrestler. We fell in love with wrestling by watching other people do it. Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels or Dean Malenko, we saw someone in the ring and we said ‘that’s beautiful. I want to do that too.’ And I know--”

He breaks off and has to take a deep breath before going on.

“I _know_ that you’re still watching wrestling, even there in the dark. It’s what we do. But right now the only match you’re seeing, in an infinite loop, is the last match you had. You’re seeing the last hit you took, the last impact, the last concussion, over and over in the darkness. And Dragon, oh Dragon--” He has to stop again for a moment at the affection and the pain he hears in his voice. He and Daniel Bryan have never had a single thing in common beyond loving wrestling, but that’s enough. It’s far more than enough. “Dragon, I’m not going to promise you it will stop hurting, because we both know that’s more bullshit. It still hurts, every single day, to be so near what I love and not do it. I wouldn’t want it to _not_ hurt. But every great match I see makes that pain… part of a bigger story. And I’ve decided I can live with that.”

He shrugs, embarrassed at the passion in his voice. 

“That’s all just me, of course. I wouldn’t know how a dragon would see things or what would motivate you, so feel free to tell me to just shove off and I’ll head back and endure another five hours with Dean Ambrose in a car, what was I thinking, accepting a ride from--”

The shift is subtle, but it’s something he can _feel_ in the hairs on the back of his neck. In the darkness of the cave, some vast bulk is suddenly--gone. “Daniel?” he says, a little uneasy that he might have managed to snuff out one of the last dragons with his attempt at a motivational speech.

And then Daniel Bryan walks out of the cave, blinking in the sunlight. He’s wearing flannel and his beard and hair are unkempt and he’s a bit paler than usual; just a very ordinary wrestler. He looks at Corey and shrugs. 

“Okay,” he says. “Let’s go.”

And that’s all there is to it, apparently. They find Dean and Finn, who wisely don’t ask what dire actions Corey had to threaten to lure Daniel out, and they start to head back to the house where Brie Bella is waiting for her husband, where Smackdown is waiting for its GM, where wrestling is waiting for its lost dragon to return.

As they walk, Finn reached out and breaks a twig off a tree. He looks at it and smiles, handing it wordlessly to Corey.

Corey holds the new green leaf in his hand like a promise as they walk back together.


End file.
